Shaver head release



Sept. 10, 1968 A. R. SPOHR ET AL SHAVER HEAD RELEASE Filed Jan. 26, 1967 United States Patent O 3,400,457 SHAVER HEAD RELEASE Albert R. Spohr, Park Ridge, and Otto Babler, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Sunbeam Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Jan. 26, 1967, Ser. No. 611,951 6 Claims. (Cl. 30-43.92)

ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A dry shaver having the shaving head retained on the housing by detent meansl and provided with a pivotal release extending through the housing to displace the head and disengage it from the detent means.

Background of the invention It has been conventional in the eld of electric dry Shavers to provide a shaving head which is detachable from the housing for the electric motor. The reason for constructing the shaver so that the head may be detached is both for replacement of the head in case of damage as well as to provide a means :for cleaning the hair clippings which are normally deposited within the shaving head. In some instances, alternative means are provided for cleaning the head and the detachability of the head need not be as easy and convenient as is required when necessary for cleaning purposes.

This easy detachment of the shaving head has presented problems with respect to cost and styling of the shaver. From a styling standpoint, the shaving head should be integrated with the 4housing in such a way that the shaver as a whole presents a smooth, well contoured, unitary appearance. This objective normally demands that the head be somewhat recessed within the housing. As a result of this recessing of the head in the housing, it is frequently ditiicult to withdraw the head and thereby detach it from the housing.

In devising a means for detachably retaining the head on the housing, cost is one of the yprimary considerations since the electric shaver eld is highly competitive. Thus, in providing a practical solution to the retention and release of the shaving head from the housing, the structure employed must be extremely simple.

Summary of the invention The invention relates to a shaver having the shaving head detachably mounted in a recess in the wall of the shaver housing. Within the recess there are detent means provided to retain the head when the head is completely seated within the recess. A simple pivoted lever is provided which extends from the exterior of the housing into the bottom of the head receiving recess and upon pivotal movement of the level causes the head to be released by the detent means as it is forced upwardly. With the additional of a single molded lever and spring there is provided a simple and effective lmeans for detaching the recessed shaving head from the shaver housing.

Brief description of the drawing For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. l is a fragmentary vertical section taken through the center of a shaver embodying our invention;

3,4%,457 Patented Sept. 10, 1968 ICC FIG. 2 is a vertical section taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view of the release mechanism of FIG. l shown in the head release position.

Description ofthe preferred embodiment Referring to the drawings, there is shown an electric dry shaver designated generally by reference numeral 11. The shaver 11 includes an electric motor 12 and a shaving head 13. The motor 12 is enclosed within a housing 14 which is formed by a pair of cup-shaped members 15 and 16. The housing members 15V and 16 are formed with peripheral side Walls 15a and 16a which abut on a common plane to form a motor enclosure 17 within which the motor 12 is received.

For the purpose of mounting. the shaving head 13, the housing 14 is provided with an upwardly facing recess 18. The recess 18 is defined by upwardly projecting side walls 15b and 16b and end walls 19 and 20. The end walls 19 and 20 are each formed in part by portions of the housing members 15 and 16 as is evident from FIG. 2. The bottom of the recess 18 is dened by a wall 21 which is made up of portions of the housing members 15 and 16 which extend inwardly in a common plane.

Centrally in the bottom wall 21 there is formed an opening 22 through which motor drive arms 23 extend as is best shown in FIG. 1. The drive arms 23 oscillate when the motor 12 is energized thereby causing reciprocating movement of cutters 25 which are mounted in shearing engagement with slotted shaving combs 26. In the particular embodiment disclosed, the shaving head 13 includes two pairs of combs and cutters which are assembled together and mounted on a plate 27 so that the shaving head is removable from the shaver 11 as single unit.

For the purpose of retaining the shaving head 13 assembled to the housing 14, there are provided a pair of resilient members or detents 28. The detents 28 consist of flat spring stock which has been formed to more or less a triangular shape as is best seen in FIGS. l and 3. The bottom and outer side walls of the detents 28 are received in opposed slots in the walls 19 and 20 prior to assembling the housing members 15 and 16 together. On the inwardly facing side of each of the detents 28, there is provided a V-shaped latch portion 29 each of which is formed so that it will extend over one end of the plate 27 as shown in FIG. 1 to retain the shaving head 13 assembled to the housing 14 when the shaving head is seated at the bottom of the head receiving recess 18. The V- shape of the latch portions 29 provides an arrangement in which the detents 28 are deected outwardly as the shaving head 13 is assembled to the shaver, and, as the plate 27 reaches the bottom of the recess 18, the latch portions 29 move inwardly over the ends of the plate 27 to retain the head 13 therein. To release the shaving head 13 from the detents 28, it is only necessary to force the head 13 along with the plate 27 upwardly until at least one end of the plate 27 is above the apex of the adjacent V-shaped latch portion 29. At that point, the detent 28 has a tendency to urge the head 13 upwardly as can be seen in FIG. 3.

Because of the recessed arrangement of the head 13 in the housing 14, it is diicult to grasp the head 13 with the ngers and withdraw it from the recess 18. In accordance with the present invention, a head ejection means or lever 31 has been provided to displace one end of the head upwardly out of retained engagement with one of the detents 28. The head ejection lever 31 is somewhat Z-shaped, having a pair of parallel legs 32 and 33 connected by a central portion 34. The leg 32 is positioned in an opening 35 formed in the housing 14. The opening 35 is actually formed by cutout portions in the abutting side walls a and 16a of the housing members. In the walls forming the opening there are a pair of aligned bearing holes 36 as shown in FIG. 2. Received in the bearing holes 36 are projections 37 extending from opposite sides of the lever 31 to pivotally mount the lever 31 with respect to the housing 14.

The inner leg 33 of the lever 31 extends into an opening 38 in the bottom wall 21 of the recess 18. Mounted on the interior wall of the housing 14 is a cantilever spring 40 which has its free end 41 in engagement with the leg 32 of the lever 31. The other end 42 of the cantilever spring is secured to the housing 14 by means of opposed wall portions 43 as are best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The spring 40 is positioned to bias the lever 31 counterclockwise as viewed in FIG. l. The lower edge of the opening 35 cooperates with the lower end of the lever 32 to form a stop limiting the outward movement of the lever 31. As is obvious from FIG. l, the leg 32 of the lever 31 extends slightly beyond the outer surface of the housing 14. Upon application of a manual force to the leg 32, the lever 31 may be rotated clockwise as viewed in FIG. l causing the inner leg 33 or actuating portion to move upwardly into engagement with the plate 27 as is best shown in FIG. 3. The movement of the lever 31 in opposition to the biasing force of spring 40 to the position shown in FIG. 3 is suicient to raise the mounting plate 27 of the head 13 above the apex of the latch portion 29. In this position of the plate 27, the detent 28 adjacent the head ejecting lever 31 exerts no retaining force on the head 13 and actually tends to urge the head 13 upwardly with respect to the housing 14. Accordingly, the head is moved out of the head receiving recess 18 as well as being released by the detents 28. The operator may either lift the shaving head 13 upwardly or invert the shaver 11 so that the force of gravity completely removes the head 13 from the recess 18.

It should be appreciated that the positioning ofthe head ejection lever 31 adjacent one of the detents 28 reduces considerably the force necessary to detach the head 13 from the shaver housing 14. When removing the head manually, there would be a tendency to lift the head 13 straight out, thereby requiring deflection of both of the detents 28 at the same time.

The simplicity of the invention can be best appreciated by noting that the mechanism for retaining and ejecting the head 13 consists entirely of four inexpensive parts which are simply mounted between the abutting walls of the housing members 15 and 16. These parts are the two detents 28, the head ejection lever 31, and the biasing spring 40. Thus, the entire mechanism for retaining and releasing the shaver head costs no more than a few cents, providing a significant advantage over alternative approaches. Through the use of the Z-shaped ejection lever, it has been possible to integrate the ejection mechanism into the shaver without taking up any appreciable space within the housing 14. As may be seen in FIGS. 1 and 3 of the drawings, the portion 32 of lever 31 is substantially within the opening 35 and occupies no space in housing 14 and the portion 33 of lever 31 is received in opening 3S of the bottom wall 21 of the recess 18. This leaves only the portion 34 of lever 31 as occupying space within the housing 14.

While there has been illustrated and described a single embodiment of the present invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications will occur, and it is contemplated by the appended claims to cover all such changes and modications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In an electric shaver having a housing, a motor contained therein and a shaving head detachably mounted on said housing in driving connection with said motor, an improved head mounting means comprising a recess in said housing for receiving said shaving head, resilient latch means in said recess for engaging said head and retaining it in drive connection with said motor, said latch means including a detent which moves into retaining engagement with said head when it is seated in said recess, said head being disengageable from said detent by forcing said head outwardly of said recess, head ejection means including a lever pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on said housing, said lever having a .rst portion positioned in an opening in the wall of said housing and extending outside of said housing, said lever having a second portion spaced on the other side of the lever pivot from said rst portion and positioned at the bottom of said recess, manual actuation of said lever causing said second portion to engage said shaving head and to force said shaving head outwardly of said recess and thereby disengaging said shaving head from said resilient latch means.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein said housing comprises a pair of cup-shaped members, the walls of which abut on a common plane to form a motor enclosure, an opening formed in said abutting walls to receive said lever, aligned bearing holes in said walls forming said opening, support projections on said lever received in said bearing holes to pivotally support said lever.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said resilient latch means comprises a pair of spaced spring detents positioned at opposed end walls of said head receiving recess, means at each end of said shaving head engaging said detents to retain said head on said housing when said head is in seated position at the bottom of said recess, said detents releasing said head when said head is displaced upwardly from said seated position.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein said second portion of said ejection means is positioned adjacent one of said detents to release only one end of said head on actuation of said rst portion.

5. The combination of claim 2 wherein said head ejection means includes spring means biasing said lever to a retracted position in which said second portion is disengaged from said shaving head, manual actuation of said rst portion rotating said second portion upwardly into engagement with said head in opposition to said spring means, said spring means comprising an elongated cantilever spring having its free end in engagement with the first portion of said lever and the other end mounted to said housing between projections on said abutting walls.

6. In an electric shaver having a housing, a motor contained therein and a shaving head detachably mounted on said housing in driving connection with said motor, an improved head mounting means comprising a recess in said housing for receiving said shaving head, resilient latch means in said recess for engaging said head and retaining it in driving connection with said motor, head ejection means pivotally mounted on said housing, said ejection means having a rst portion extending outside of said housing and second portion positioned at the bottom of said recess, said head ejection means comprises a Z-shaped lever having two substantially parallel legs, one leg of which comprises said rst portion and one leg of which comprises said second portion, the leg forming said first portion being positioned in an opening in the wall of said housing and being pivoted to said housing at one end of said opening, the leg comprising said second portion which extends through an opening in said housing into the bottom of said recess and moves lengthwise into engagement with said head to eject it from said recess, and manual actuation of said rst portion of said head ejection means causing said second portion to engage said References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1/1940 Benner 30-43.92

Nyhagen 30-43.91 X

Gray et al. 30-43.92

Hahn 30-43.92

Locke E70-43.92

Ream 30-43.1

Kratz 30-43.92 X

MYRON C. KRUSE, Primary Examiner. 

